Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 95, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 August 1899 — PORTO RICO FORESTS. [ARTICLE]

PORTO RICO FORESTS.

ISLAND IS ALMOST DESTITUTE OF TIMBER. Not a Sufficient Quantity There for Uae aa Fuel Duty of the United Btazea in the Matter—Will Marry Fnnaton’a Men. The Agricultural Department at Washington will soon issue in bulletin form some notes recently made on the forests of Porto Rico by Robert T. Hill of the geographical survey. Hill says that comparatively little of the original forest of the island remains. He estimates the remnant at not to exceed ten square miles. The principal part thns left is on the summit of the practically insurmountable mountain peak of El Yunque, the highest point in the Sierra Luquillo mountains. The evidences of original forests are plentiful, and Mr. Hill suggests that one of the principal problems for the United States is to reforest the island. This, he thinks, will be comparatively easy. The soil and climate are well adapted to tree growth, and maturity will bp speedily attained. For the present, however, there is not sufficient timber to supply the needs of the island even for fuel. TWENTY PERSONS ARE HURT. Pennsylvania Railroad Train Badly • Wrecked Near Allegheny. Twenty people were injured in a wreck on the West Pennsylvania Railroad at Herr’s Station, a few miles above Alleghany City, Pa. None of the injured is likely to die, but a number are quite badly hurt. The accident happened at one of the roundhouse switches at Herr’s Station. As the Apollo accommodation train going east came into the yard a switch split, throwing the passenger train with terrific force against two side-track-ed engines. The smoker and middle coach of the accommodation, which were crowded to the limit, were literally smashed to splinters. How the passengers escaped death is a miracle. ANCHOR LINE CHANGES HANDS. Company Formed to Acquire Interests of Original Owners. The, ownership of the Anchor Line of steamships plying between Glasgow, New York and many other ports has changed hands. The long-established partnership of the well-known ship owners, Henderson Brothers of Glasgow, owners of the Anchor Line, has terminated, and a company has been formed to acquire the entire business of the firm. The company has been incorporated with a capital of £575,000. FUNSTON’S MEN OR NONE. Marital Agreement by Clubs of Girls in Southern Kansas. The girls clubs of several southern Kansas towns have resolved never to marry a young man unless he served with the famous Twentieth Kansas. They say they are determined to keep their agreement and that soOner than marry a man who staid at home they will remain single all their lives. They intend to give the boys of the regiment a big reception when they return. Want to Be Annexed. The natives of the island of Kusale, in the Carolines, want to be annexed to the United States. The king, high chiefs and prominent men on the island to the number of seventy-two have forwarded a petition to that effect to the President. Germany having bought the islands, the petition is too late. Ashtabula Strike Ended. The ore handlers’ strike on the M. A. Hanna dock at Ashtabula, Ohio, is settled, and the men have returned to work. The men gained every point they demanded. An arbitration committee of three persons was appointed, which will engage and discharge all employes and settle all differences. Pnt Poison in Coffee. At Carmi, 111., Mrs. George Crabtree, 1C years old, confessed to having put poison in coffee with deliberate intent to murder her stepmother and father, Walter S. Warthen. The result of the act was that her brother was killed and her parents and a neighbor were made deathly sick. Embezzler Commits Suicide. Harry W. Fontaine embezzled money from Dreyfuss & Co. at Denver, and shortly after the discovery of his crime committed suicide by taking morphine. About fifteen years ago Fontaine lost $15,000 at roulette and on the Chicago Board of Trade. His father had been a wealthy liquor dealer of Toledo. Murder in Chinatown. San Francisco’s Chinatown has had another murder. The supposed wife of Lem Sang, a Chinese laundryman, was brutally murdered in a room occupied by the pair. The mutilated body was found by the police, when they broke in the door, hacked almost to pieces. Taken for a St. Louis Murder. Detectives arrested John Connors at the Dittenhoffer shoe factory in Cincinnati and charged him with a sensational murder that occurred a year ago in St. Louis, Mo., when Charles A. Brant, a stenographer, was held up by three men and shot to death. Ten Injured in Train Wreck. Ten men were badly injured and a large number of others bruised and cut iu a collision between a work train »n the Cleveland and Pittsburg Railroad and a shifting engine near Mingo junction, O. Both engines were demolished. The accident was caused by a misplaced switch. . ̲ ̲ ̲ ̲ ̲ ̲ ̲ ̲ ̲ ̲ ̲ ̲ ̲ ̲ Good Wheat Crop in France. Official reports show that the condition of winter wheat is very good in nine departments of France, good in 67, fair in eight, and bad in one department. Spring wheat is very good in four departments, good in 30 and fair in 13. Frohman Buys Daly’s Theater. Daly’s Theater in New York—that is its eight years’ lease and renewal, with all Its furnishings, scenery, properties and costumes—has been purchased by Messrs. Klaw & Erlanger for Charles Frohman. The price was $100,006.

CLEARS UP MURDER MYSTERY. Charles A. Brunt Was Killed at St. Louis by Robbers. The mystery surrounding the murder of Charles A. Brant, who was shot and killed in St. Louis July 25, 1898, has been cleared up. John Connors, who was arrested in Cincinnati by a St.. Louis detective, made a confession to the effect that he and two pals, Harry Morris and Edward Hellman, held up Brant for the purpose of robbery and shot him upon his making a desperate resistance. Morris and Hellman are now serving long terms in the Jefferson City penitentiary for burglary. These two men, it now turns out, had admitted their complicity in the crime to the St. Louis police officials and had implicated Connors. The capture of the latter and the confessions of the trio clears up a murder mystery that has baffled the police for a year. Contrary to the idea held by many at the time, the murder was prompted solely by a desire for booty and not by private hatred or a desire for revenge. EXPRESS COMPANY WINS CASE. Cannot Be Forced to Tell Its Business to State Warehouse Commission. Judge Otis of th. District Court at St. Paul filed a decision in the case of the State railroad and warehouse commission against the United States Express Company. The object of the suit was to compel the express company to report the volume of its business to the commission in order to make the company pay a gross earnings tax and comply with the other laws of the State regulating common carriers, and particularly their rates. The court finds that the express company is not a corporation, but a partnership, of which any one owning shares becomes a member. The court holds that the company cannot be compelled to furnish information concerning its interstate business, over which the State commission has no surveillance or control. JEALOUSY PROMPTS MURDER F. Thever Kills Miss Dorothy McKee and Mortally Wounds Himself. F. Thever, a cobbler, 50 years old, shot and killed Miss Dorothy McKee, aged 24 years, on the beach at Long Beach, Cal. Thever was jealous of the attentions of a young man named Baker to Miss McKee. Thever attempted to shoot Baker, but missed him. He then shot himself through the eye. He was mortally wounded. Paraded in Men’s Attire. At Moorhead, Minn., a woman giving her name as Mamie Brown was found masquerading in man’s clothes and was fined $10 and ordered out of town. It has been learned that she is the eldest daughter of a highly respected Baptist minister who lives in a southern Minnesota town. Not to Pardon Mrs. Maybrick. In the English House of Commons, Sir Matthew White Ridley, the home secretary, said that he was unable to hold out hope of exceptional treatment of Mrs. Maybrick, and added that he was not aware of the existence of any reason for royal clemency. Aeronaut is Kilted. W. A. Thayer, the balloonist from Collins. Mich., was killed in sight of many persons at Streator, 111. He fell from the parachute when the balloon was up 200 feet, landing on his back on the railroad track. His back, neck, both legs and both arms were broken. Reformatory Ship Burned. The Roman Catholic reformatory ship Clarence was destroyed by fire at Liverpool! The boys on board worked with the utmost discipline until they were forced to leave the ship with the officers. No lives were lost. Well-Known Soiritualist Dead. The death is announced, at the Manhattan State hospital for the insane in New York of Lottie Fowler, who, twen-ty-five years ago, was a well-known spiritualistic medium. Two Perish in Flames. The home of D. H. Knupp, at Black Mountain, thirteen miles east of Asheville, N. C., was burned. E. Fogote, an architect, and an' Englishman, whose name is, unknown, perished in the flames. Kills Three and Self. At Denmark, Ind., Charles Wolfnagel chopped his wife and two daughters to death, then cut his own throat and died on the floor by his wife’s bedside. He is thought to have been insane. Killed by Lightning At Napoleon, Ohio. Daniel Howe, aged 19, was instantly killed by lightning.